Into Ethiopia’s wilds

The Bale Mountains National Park in central Ethiopia remains relatively undiscovered by even the most adventurous travellers, who tend to explore the Simien Mountains in the north and the Rift Valley Lakes in the south. This is in part due to poor access and limited accommodation. Now, a new road has cut the journey time from the Rift Valley Road from 10 hours to one, and at the end of it the first high-end lodge will open this October.

Bale Mountain Lodge is in a clearing surrounded by wild coffee plants within the Harenna Forest. Thatched rooms are all in stone and mahogany, with wood burning fires and private terraces. The glass-walled restaurant's chef trained at The Savoy in London. And magnificent views can be had from the glass-bottomed spa, which sits above a river by the lodge; a natural waterfall spills into a plunge pool surrounded by decking.

The stream also brings rich wildlife-watching: 240 species of bird, mountain nyala (antelope), warthogs and Bale monkeys are in abundance. There's a research centre with a naturalist and ornithologist who spends the day studying the park's endemic species, and gives talks to guests in the evenings. Not far away is the Sanetti Plateau, where endangered Ethiopian wolves - 300 of the 500 left in the wild - can sometimes be spotted hunting rodents in the snow.